11 Procrastination Tips

These procrastination tips are intended to help those people who are interested in overcoming procrastination but need some ideas to get them started.

“If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.  “
Olin Miller - Author

1. Begin the day by tackling those things you really don’t want to do. This is the time when you’ll probably be at your most alert and creative. It has the added advantage that once you’ve cleared some of those things you’ll feel much better and you can go on to do some of the more pleasurable things without that nagging feeling.
   
2. Get a routine; sitting down and starting to work on your ‘To Do’ list at the same time every day will help you to get you started on those tasks you want to avoid.
   
3. Recognise when you’re procrastinating. Often bringing it into your awareness will help you to deal with it. If awareness itself doesn’t help you feel better, write down what’s preventing you from starting. Then write down what you can do to overcome each of these things.
   
4. Reward yourself when you’ve completed one of the tasks you don’t like. It doesn’t have to be a major thing – a cup of coffee, 30 minutes off to do what you want – whatever works for you. Make sure you don’t take these, even if you’re not getting the work done!
   
5. Organise yourself so you don’t have clutter all around that can easily divert your attention from your task. Clear your desk
   
6. Turn off your email so you’re not tempted each time you hear the ‘ping’ of email arriving. This is one of the greatest diversions the computer offers!
   
7. Divide a large piece of work into smaller pieces (bite sized) and tackle them one at a time. Also – remember that you don’t necessarily have to finish each part in one sitting, as long as that’s part of your plan.
   
8. Set yourself a time-table so that you can see whether you’re hitting your target date/time. If you don’t have deadlines there are no targets to meet – that’s the procrastinator’s worst enemy. The best thing is to have a deadline date for your project as well as for each individual part.
   
9. Appoint someone to whom you’ll agree to be accountable – a coach for instance (not the person for whom you’re doing the work!) If you know that they’re going to check on your progress and won’t take any excuses, it’s amazing how you can buckle down to doing things!
   
10. Change your attitude by changing your words. Instead of saying “I have to do this” - say: “I want to do this”. Instead of saying “I can’t do this” – say “I can do this”. Try this with all your negative statements and see how different it feels.
    
11. Putting off what really has to be done, only delays the inevitable.

This final one is the clincher! If it didn’t need to be done you wouldn’t need to procrastinate; if it has to be done it’s no good hoping it will go away by ignoring it because it will still be sitting there waiting for you. If you really are committed to overcoming procrastination you need to understand this and these procrastination tips should help you!